The Cleansing Bitter Taste
The fifth taste that brings balance to Kapha and aggravates Vata is the bitter taste. It is an important taste as we will see given our acidic diet in the West. Coffee is bitter and its qualities increase mindbody movement, usually seen as psychological agitation. So coffee can hardly be cleansing in most situations.
The alkaline taste in Nature is bitter: cold, light, dry, rough, mobile, subtle, soft, and clear. It increases Vata due to all its primordial vibrational frequencies but pacifies Pitta and Kapha since bitter is the opposite of sour. Pitta is balanced due to the cold, mobile, and oily qualities. Kapha is balanced due light, dry, rough, mobile, subtle, and clear. This taste is found in turmeric, dandelion root, aloe vera, yellow dock, fenugreek, sandalwood, neem, and coffee. Bitter makes all food taste better and is the most lacking in North American nutrition.
Since bitter is alkaline, it balances sour or inflammatory conditions in the mindbody, so it is anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, laxative, and can clear skin disorders. It stimulates firm muscles and skin. In small doses it works as a digestive tonic. Bitter is cleansing because it brings detoxifying qualities to the tissues. Because antibiotics commonly used by matter science physicians have the bitter taste, nonbacterial inflammatory conditions such as interstitial cystitis or chronic prostatitis may be transiently helped with antibiotic use.
Psychologically the mindbody becomes more introverted with this taste, which creates aversion to desires, causing us to become more self-aware and introspective. In excess bitter can cause us to become cynical, boring, isolated, and lonely.
This taste is very important because we often lack it in our foods which brings up the importance of churans which deliver all six tastes which is important for meal wholeness from a food energy view.
The above picture implies that coffee might be important in delivering the bitter taste. Although it does, it is highly Vata provoking which also affects Pitta and Kapha, hence eliminating it as a drink for anyone to consume from an energetic view.
Lastly tomorrow, the astringent taste. To health as a skill Love DrBill
